The end comes too quickly for the UMass football team, whose playoff hopes are dashed in R.I.

Photo by J. Anthony RobertsJulian Talley reaches for a first-quarter pass Saturday in Kingston, R.I. Talley had nine catches for UMass in the 37-34 loss to Rhode Island.
photo by J. Anthony Roberts

KINGSTON, R.I. - The University of Massachusetts football team is heading into its offseason, accompanied by the gnawing thoughts of missed chances and what might have been.

"It was certainly a tough way to finish a potentially special season,'' a somber coach Kevin Morris said after Saturday's 37-34 loss to Rhode Island, wiping away the Minutemen's hopes of being chosen for the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

"I thought we were doing well, but they made big plays,'' said Jonathan Hernandez, whose 124-yard rushing game included a one-yard run with 3:32 left.

The touchdown gave UMass a 34-29 lead and put the Minutemen on the cusp of the postseason. Rhody's Brandon Johnson-Farrell ruined those dreams by catching a fourth-down, 3-yard TD pass from Steve Probst with 1:20 left.

That capped a 46-yard drive set up by Deontray Johnson's 48-yard kickoff return.

UMass quarterback Kyle Havens, whose very fine senior season was capped by a 373-yard passing day, threw his only interception with 44 seconds left. The pickoff by Evan Shields near midfield ended the last hope for UMass (6-5, 4-4 Colonial Athletic Association).

The 20-team FCS field will be announced Sunday. A 7-4 record was expected to get UMass in, but 6-5 will not.

The UMass defense had no answers in the second half for Probst, who transferred to Rhode Island after Hofstra dropped football after the 2009 season.

UMass receiver Anthony Nelson, who came from Hofstra with the dream of playing in the postseason, had four catches for 129 yards and a touchdown. Julian Talley had nine catches, 109 yards, and Dan Sheeran caught seven for 85 yards and a touchdown).

But the Minutemen were hurt by penalties (eight for 86 yards) and haunted by problems on special teams, a problem that worsened over the course of the season.

A missed 29-yard field goal, plagued by a bad snap, ended one drive. On two other first-half drives, lack of trust in the field goal unit led to fourth-down attempts that failed.

One came from the Rhode Island 9. Havens refused to point fingers at the lapses on special teams, or blame the difficult fourth-down decisions the kicking game's struggles created.

Asked if UMass was hurt by the early missed opportunities, Havens said, "Yes, but that's football. They just capitalized on them.''

Morris also tried to downplay the effect of a field-goal unit that made even close-range kicks risky.

"We'd been going for it on fourth down all year, and we'd been very successful at it,'' he said.

Rhode Island also blocked a punt during a five-minute stretch that saw the Rams turn a 14-3 second-quarter deficit into a 20-14 third-quarter lead.

"We never got over the hump. We had been looking for that full, 60-minute game all year, and we still haven't done it,'' Morris said.